1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the formation of three dimensional frozen confections from an already formed frozen confection product. The final shape of the reformed confection can be of almost any desired configuration without regard to whether or not the topmost portion of the confection is wider than the bottom or whether there are undercut portions in the reformed confection. The present invention can be used with frozen confections made of water ice, ice cream, aerated ice cream, ice milk, fudge, puddings, sherbert, frozen yogurt or the like.
Specifically, in the method and apparatus of this invention a slug of frozen confection is molded in a generic or elemental shape in the first position of a conventional high speed frozen confection forming machine. The frozen slug is then reformed by a split mold which defines a cavity that substantially encloses the molded slug causing the frozen material to flow to form the shape of the closed split mold cavity. By careful control of the slug size and shape in relation to the mold cavity and the slug temperature, the finally shaped confection can be produced substantially as the result of the flow of frozen slug material without significant melting and refreezing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention is specifically adapted to be practiced in conjunction with a conventional frozen confection forming machine which is modified to include a reforming station in the finishing section of the machine which reforms the finished, generically shaped, molded elemental slugs of frozen confection. Conventional confection forming machines are well known in the frozen confection industry and are sold under the trademarks "VITALINE" and "GRAM".
Specifically, the Vitaline machine has a first molding section wherein a first group of side-by-side mold cavities are filled with liquid or semi-solid confection and the mold strips are advanced through a brine tank thereby freezing the confection. During the freezing process, a stick is inserted into the confection and at the end of the first section of the machine, the frozen confections are extracted upwardly from the mold cavities by their respective sticks. In the second section of the machine, the confections are advanced to subsequent stations where a coating or coatings are applied, if desired, and the completed confections are ultimately individually packaged and are available for removal from the machine in their individual packages.
A Gram machine operates in a manner similar to the Vitaline machine, except the first section contains a circular, rather than an elongated brine tank and the mold cavities are carried in a circular path.
Since the frozen confection is removed from the mold in both the Vitaline and Gram machines by simply drawing the stick upwardly, the molds must be shaped such that the molded frozen confection is axially strippable. Such requirement greatly limits the shapes into which the finished products manufactured on such machines can be formed since there can be no undercut surfaces that would interfere with the withdrawal of the frozen confection.
One suggested method of increasing the variety of shapes of frozen confection products produced from machines of the foregoing construction is described in British Pat. No. 2,005,125, published Apr. 19, 1979. This patent discloses a method of decorating frozen confections and apparatus for carrying out the method in conjunction with a Gram confection forming machine. The '125 patent recognizes that the shape in which a frozen confection may be formed on such machine is limited by the requirement that the molded confection be axially strippable and teaches a method of applying undercut decorations to the surface of a frozen confection after removal from the mold by "branding" or stamping the frozen confection with opposed heated stamping tools. Significantly, and contrary to the present invention, the British patent teaches that it is not possible to use unheated stamping tools without crushing the frozen confection. This is consistent with the long held belief by those skilled in the art that frozen confections and particularly quiescently frozen confections are incapable of being compressed to form a shape.
British Pat. No. 2,005,124 discloses a method for merely adding decorations to the surface of a frozen confection and an apparatus for practicing such method. The apparatus is similar to the apparatus disclosed in British Pat. No. 2,005,125, however, in the '124 patent instead of utilizing heated stamping tools, high pressure nozzles held away from the surface of the frozen confection are used to spray a predetermined pattern of contrasting colored liquid against the surface of the frozen confection to form a pattern in the frozen confection. The surface and outline of the axially strippable frozen confection is neither undercut nor changed.
An early attempt to manufacture frozen confection products in shapes having undercut surfaces is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,891,230. This patent relates to a method of stamping ice cream shapes from a continuous strip of frozen confection rather than from an axially strippable mold shape. The method of the '230 patent also requires that the strip of ice cream be heat treated in a complex manner to form a crust or slightly hardened outer surface which will allow the strip of ice cream to be advanced to a cooperating pair of stamping dies. The temperature of the strip of ice cream must also be carefully controlled to assure that the stamping process will operate satisfactorily. The necessity for precise temperature treatment prevents this process from being commercially or economically feasible.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,411 discloses another method of forming shaped frozen confections. The method of this patent however, utilizes a strippable rubber mold. Liquid confection mix is poured into the rubber mold, a stick is inserted and the confection is frozen in a bath. The mold must then be manually stripped off the shaped frozen confection. Such a method does not lend itself to high speed production. Further, it can only be used to produce confections of one particular shape at a time because differently shaped confections would require varying amounts of time in the freezing bath.
Another manner of producing frozen confections in more interesting shapes from an axially strippable mold is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,760. This patent teaches a method and apparatus for producing a frozen confection in a tapered, spiral shape having helical fluting that is rotationally, axially strippable. The apparatus utilizes a modified extracting means that both lifts and turns the confection incident to its removal from the mold. Necessarily, such apparatus is complex and can nevertheless only produce a frozen confection having a spiral form in a particular spiral configuration with a predetermined pitch corresponding to the pitch of the extractor. It cannot successfully demold a frozen confection having undercut surfaces or a nonuniform, three dimensional shape such as an animal.
Yet another known method for forming shaped frozen confections is the process of extrusion. In such method, the confection in a semi-solid state is forced through a shaped nozzle under pressure onto a moving belt or similar advancing means. The freezing process is completed by high velocity cold air directed against the semi-solid confection. Such a process results in a frozen confection product that has a uniform cross-section and cannot produce frozen confections having undercut portions or three dimensional shapes simulating animals.
As is apparent from the foregoing discussion of the prior art until now workers in the art have failed to recognize the possibility that frozen confections could be caused to flow, without significant melting and refreezing to form a desired shape and have resorted to a variety of complicated processes and equipment variations to produce shaped frozen confections.